Audi’s got its new Porsche-adjacent E-Tron GT heading your way

The Audi E-Tron GT has been a concept for at least a few years now but last night the auto-maker made it, and the Audi E-Tron GT Quattro, an official thing. The new vehicle joins the plain ole E-Tron and the Sportback version on the market.

And if you’re a Porsche fan, you might want to pay extra-special attention. Audi is using the Porsche Taycan’s J1 platform for the vehicle, which means that most of these specs are going to look a little familiar — if you’ve been paying attention.

Meet the Porsche Taycan E-Tron GT

The four-door electric vehicles both boast some impressive specs but it’s the high-end RS E-Tron GT that will raise your heart-rate on the road. The front axle’s motors are rated at 175kW, while the rear axle is specced to 335kW, for a total output of 440kW, or 590hp. The GT’s about as quick as the company’s petrol-driven R8, with launch control increasing total output to 637hp for 2.5 seconds, which might explain how it manages to go from 0 to 100km/h in 3.1 seconds. It’s limited to a top speed of 250km/h but it could go faster if it wanted to.

The E-Tron GT Quattro shares many of the same engine specs, but the rear axle uses slightly smaller motors, rated at ‘just’ 320kW/430hp. Launch control pushed the Quattro to 523hp for 2.5 seconds, for a zero to 100km/h time of merely 3.9 seconds.

Both vehicles are based around a 93.4kWh lithium-ion battery, which is supposedly rated for 85kWh (because batteries are weird). It supports DC fast charging up to 270kW, which takes you from 5% to 80% in just under 23 minutes. We’d like to see a smartphone do that.

Something else does do that, however. The Porsche Taycan features the same battery and charging tech. Range for Audi’s vehicles should be around 488km on a charge, according to Audi itself. Nobody’s tested this yet but we don’t expect them to be far off.

Inside each vehicle there are two displays. Expect a 12.3in instrument cluster behind the steering wheel and then a 10.1in touchscreen display within reach of both driver and passenger. LTE Advanced is built-in via a dedicated chip, in case you want to turn yourself into a speeding WiFi hotspot, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are supported and there’s also an app, in case you want to unlock your doors with your phone (and probably do other things too).

Don’t expect either EV to come cheap, either. We don’t have local pricing yet but the E-Tron GT starts at about R1.78 million (based on European pricing), with the RS model raising the bar to about R2.5 million. To start with. If you’re starting from the ‘bottom’, you’ll pay extra for bits like all-wheel steering, Matrix LED headlights, the windshield projecting HUD display or the B&O sound system. The RS version has some of these extras, but you’ll likely find yourself speccing up there as well. Because why stop at two-and-a-half bar, right?